Biography

Prime Minister of Israel from 1983-1984 and from 1986-1992.

He went to work the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service and served in several posts for the Israeli government. He was a top agent in France but returned to Israel and spent several years in business. He joined Mr. Begin's Herut Party in 1970 and was elected to Israeli Parliament in December 1973. He was elected speaker in 1977. He abstained from the Camp David accords in 1978. He became Foreign Minister in 1980. He became Prime Minister in 1983 and won the election in 1988. He remained Prime Minister until 1992 and succeeded by Yitzak Rabin.

After World War II, the three major Jewish underground groups cooperated until the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Israel on July 22, 1946 which killed many casualties. He was arrested and exiled to an internment camp in Eritrea. He escaped a few months later and took refuge in France before returning to the newly independent Israel in May 1948.

He is survived by his daughter, Gilada Shamir Diamant, and son, Yair Shamir; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

In Palestine, he was a bookkeeper and construction worker. After the Arabs attacked Jewish settlers and the British in 1936, he joined the Irgun Zvai Leum, the underground Jewish defense league. He became a member of the militant Lehi or Stern Gang under Abraham Stern. He became group's top commanders in 1942 after Stern's murder. He met his wife, Shulamit Levy, who was courier and confidante. They married at a location in Jerusalem, Israel and gathered people off the street as witnesses to the ceremony before each departed for another city.

A man who goes forth to take the life of another whom he does not know must believe only one thing: that by his act he will change the course of history.

I like all those people, they're nice people. But this is not my style, not my language. This kind of meeting is the modern picture, but I don't belong to it.

[on his years in the Underground] The best years of my life.

[on the September 16, 1982 massacre at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps under the Israeli Army watch] Difficult to find a justification for his decision not to make 'any attempt to check whether there was anything in what he heard. You know in those times of the Lebanese war, every day something happened. And from the first glance of it, it seemed like just another detail of what was going on every day. But after 24 hours, it became very clear it was not a normal event.

[on his second full term in office] Keep things as they are. With our long bitter experience we have to think twice before we do something.